Thank you Netgalley for my review copy of this title.

A very moving and realistic tale of the hardship felt by a young black slave in Jamaica - Ms July. Told by a down to earth older narrator who has a spirit and a mischievous personality, it is a tale that takes to the highs of love to the very lows of spite and prejudice from all peoples.
Every schoolchild should read this.

I almost feel I should apologise for not getting on with The Long Song. I can see that it’s well written with an original voice, that it’s a well-constructed narrative and that, obviously it deals with extremely important issues. It’s just that for some reason I didn’t engage with it at all.

I can’t really explain this; it’s just something that happens occasionally with books and no matter how well done it is, it just doesn’t do it for me. This is plainly just a very personal response so don’t let me put anyone off because many others think it’s brilliant. Personally, though, it’s not a book I liked.

(My thanks to Tinder Press for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Wow! What an outstanding book. It sucked me in at the beginning and spat me out at the end. An historical novel of slavery and the horrendousness that goes with it. I have to admit I felt terrible that this is in the history books and my ancestors played a massive part in this. But I rejoiced at the freeing of the slaves and the emancipation that came with it. I love the characters especially July and the fact she was a bright spunky character. If I could give more than five stars I would. Brilliant.

Thank you to Headline, Tinder Press, Netgalley and Andrea Levy for the chance to read and review this novel

This book was witty and riveting from the outset. I loved the banter between mother and son where he was telling her not to include things and she was insisting she will include them and write it her way. The opening of chapter one managed to be full of humour despite depicting an act of violence against Kitty. It is immediately obvious that our storyteller has a no-nonsense attitude and is often unintentionally funny in how she tells her tale.

July is a slave born on a Jamaican sugar plantation named Amity. When she is nine years old the plantation owner’s sister, Caroline Mortimer, takes a liking to her and takes her from her mother to live in The Grand House and be trained as her lady’s maid. Over the years Caroline comes to depend on July, giving her a safe and enviable position amongst the other negros.

This book was not an easy read. There were many vivid descriptions of violence against the negros, the awful conditions they worked and lived in, and the way they were viewed as less than human by their white counterparts. Reading how violence against them was an accepted daily occurrence and the lengths gone to by the white masters to keep them under their control was sickening. It was distressing to remember that even if July herself is fictional, these things really happened to people. I did find it interesting to learn how the Jamaicans themselves viewed colour, seeing darker skin as bad and aspiring to be light and beautiful. The different words they had for the varying mixes of parentage and what it meant for a slave in terms of their rank showed how the white man telling them they were less than him and ugly because of their colour seeped into their psyche and became what they believed of themselves.

I didn’t know anything about the history of slavery in England and its colonies or the Baptist War, I’m ashamed to admit when I think of slavery I think of America, so reading this book was an education I won’t soon forget. In particular, the image of a coffin with July 31,1838 written on it, the date slavery was abolished in Jamaica, and it being lowered into the ground along with the shackles of the slaves, is a powerful scene that will stay with me forever. I wasn’t surprised to find the freed slaves struggled to be treated as free men as sadly a declaration from the King doesn’t change the minds of those who have oppressed them for years.

The Long Song is a story of slavery, struggle, fear, murder, war and brutality. It is also a story of motherhood, childhood, love, freedom and living life against great odds. It is an entertaining and captivating story and I can see why the BBC have picked it up to make a series. The only negative for me was that it was hard to read and confusing at times because of the language*.

*There was another negative that was to do with the way the copy of the book I received was formatted. It would repeat the same few sentences in the middle of other sentences at the start of each chapter. There were also words missing. It made it confusing, distracting and very hard to read when this happened. Numerous times I almost didn’t finish this book but my love of the story itself and the way it was written, helped me to override the frustration from how it was formatted.